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Newsradio 106.9 WSYR

Its weird that they dont mention 570 much on their website or on-air anymore. If it was some flea power AM station I'd understand, but the 570 signal travels much further than the 106.9 signal.

In Albany WGY still mentions 810 on their website and on-air, granted its a much more powerful 50kw clear channel station, but it makes me wonder if they are planning to do something else with the 570 signal. Hopefully they keep some news on it since this signal covers rural areas outside of the city well that may not get decent FM from Syracuse.
 
What does the 106.9 coverage pattern look liike? It could very well be inferior to 570's coverage to the east and west, but IIRC WSYR has a real problem with its AM coverage to the south of town, including the southern half of Onondaga County--especially on the nighttime/pre-sunrise pattern. They could be picking up some added listeners in the burbs on FM.

Having said that, they're messing up the whole cluster, and wasting an urban format on 620. The 620 facility is actually better both day and night in hitting the adult core audience in the market than 570, and maybe even better than 106.9, so its real natural format is news/talk. They'd have been best off moving the sports to 570 (which is still a better pattern than 1260, especially after dark), moving news/talk to 620, and keeping the urban contemp at 106.9. That format on FM, if well done, has excellent potential for dominating 12-34 listenership in both city and suburb and cutting across ethnic and income lines, while a superior-coverage signal on 620 would get the 35+ crowd with news and talk. Just ask the Langston family in Rochester, who have taken such a station, WDKX (FM), straight to the top 12+ in Rochester despite one of the weakest FM signals in the Rochester market.
 
Bob1370 said:
What does the 106.9 coverage pattern look liike? It could very well be inferior to 570's coverage to the east and west, but IIRC WSYR has a real problem with its AM coverage to the south of town, including the southern half of Onondaga County--especially on the nighttime/pre-sunrise pattern. They could be picking up some added listeners in the burbs on FM.

Having said that, they're messing up the whole cluster, and wasting an urban format on 620. The 620 facility is actually better both day and night in hitting the adult core audience in the market than 570, and maybe even better than 106.9, so its real natural format is news/talk. They'd have been best off moving the sports to 570 (which is still a better pattern than 1260, especially after dark), moving news/talk to 620, and keeping the urban contemp at 106.9. That format on FM, if well done, has excellent potential for dominating 12-34 listenership in both city and suburb and cutting across ethnic and income lines, while a superior-coverage signal on 620 would get the 35+ crowd with news and talk. Just ask the Langston family in Rochester, who have taken such a station, WDKX (FM), straight to the top 12+ in Rochester despite one of the weakest FM signals in the Rochester market.
Click to expand...

106.9 is licensed as a Class B1, 9kW ERP, and covers the area quite well. No it does not equal 570's daytime coverage, but most FM's can't compare with a 5kW AM on the low end of the band. Agree that 620 coverage is slightly better daytime than 570, but not so at night. At night 570 is strong to the north and east, weak to south and west. 620 is OK north and south but very poor east and west. Overall I think its a wash.
 
So is 196.9 still stereo, or has the pilot been turned off?

And if in stereo do the half truths Beck, Limbaugh, & Hannity tell make the whole truth in two channels?
 
Element9 said:
A post on the Albany board reports WSYR let two news staffers go. Word on this?
Click to expand...

Hey, haven't checked the board in a few days. But yes, it's true. Had a story posted on my site the day before you asked your question here.

http://www.cnyradio.com/2011/01/14/wsyr-reportedly-cuts-2-reporters/

Tiffany Latino and Michelle Clark got the ax, and that leaves the station with just one reporter, Ellen Abbott... and my sources tell me she's only part-time. All other newsroom staffers are anchors, so aside from whatever sound bites Ellen brings back, every local news sound bite will either be acquired over the phone, taken out of in-studio interviews from shows (like Reith or Galuski) or maybe even "borrowed" from TV.
 
As for AM 620, will the heritage WHEN calls be staying intact, or will they be replaced with WPHR? When Magic 590 moved from FM to AM last year, the AM kept WROW but the FM kept WKLI even under its new format (then again, this is Clear Channel, who is crazy enough to dump heritage calls) :)
 
danikayser84 said:
As for AM 620, will the heritage WHEN calls be staying intact, or will they be replaced with WPHR? When Magic 590 moved from FM to AM last year, the AM kept WROW but the FM kept WKLI even under its new format (then again, this is Clear Channel, who is crazy enough to dump heritage calls) :)
Click to expand...

Rumor has it, Clear Channel is trying to sell the WHEN callsign to WWV. ;)
 
danikayser84 said:
As for AM 620, will the heritage WHEN calls be staying intact, or will they be replaced with WPHR? When Magic 590 moved from FM to AM last year, the AM kept WROW but the FM kept WKLI even under its new format (then again, this is Clear Channel, who is crazy enough to dump heritage calls) :)
Click to expand...

So far, 620 is still WHEN. The WPHR calls were moved to the West Palm Beach, FL station that formerly had the WSYR-FM calls.

And yes, CC is crazy enough to dump heritage calls.

Look what they did with TV:
1) They rebranded Rochester's WOKR as WHAM-TV. The WOKR calls were moved to a crappy FM station in Remsen (north of Utica).
2) They rebranded Syracuse's WIXT as WSYR-TV. The WIXT calls were moved to an even crappier AM station in Little Falls (east of Utica), replacing THAT station's heritage WLFH calls.

Then, Clear Channel sells its Utica/Rome radio cluster AND the company's entire TV division nationwide, basically making it a lot harder for either TV station to reclaim their old call letters, if they ever decided to.
 
I have to question the move to talk on FM. Obviously, the goal is to attract younger (& female) listeners. I don't believe the average, educated, 40 year old is interested in the programing that most C. C. talk stations have to offer. Those stations are aimed at angry, old, white guys. Does anyone really believe that if they blew up WSEN-FM and replaced it with a WFBL-FM they would attract anymore listeners to their talk format? Whoops, I might have given them an idea. A really bad idea.
At this point, a good strong AM signal is significant for the type of programing they are offering. If not, they should look at the programing they are offering. Not to say, this couldn't change in the next 5 -10 years.
 
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